IPL 2023: Chennai Super Kings vs Lucknow Super Giants Match 6 - Talking Points and Who Said What?

The sixth match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 featured a fiery clash between the four-time champions Chennai Super Kings and Lucknow Super Giants. Both sides took on each other at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium on Monday, April 3.

The KL Rahul-led Lucknow came into the game oozing confidence as they were coming off a victory in their first game of the season against Delhi Capitals. However, the flame was quickly extinguished following an exceptional performance by Chennai.

Ruturaj Gaikwad and Devon Conway played sensational knocks, whereas Moeen Ali was highly impressive with the ball in the second innings. Kyle Mayers' excellence with the bat and Mark Wood’s resilient spell were not enough for Lucknow in the end, as Chennai won the game by 12 runs. Following the end of the match, let us have a look at the talking points from the match and who said what.

1. Ruturaj Gaikwad’s excellence

26-year-old Ruturaj Gaikwad has kicked off the IPL 2023 season with a bang. After scoring 92 runs in the season opener, Gaikwad followed it up with an excellent knock of 57 runs in the game against Lucknow. His knock was integral for the four-time champions as they posted 217 runs on the board after the first innings.

2. Moeen Ali’s masterclass

After scoring 19 runs in the first innings, veteran English all-rounder Moeen Ali followed it up with a masterclass of a spell. Ali took four wickets to dismantle Lucknow’s batting line-up. Furthermore, the 35-year-old only conceded 26 runs in the four overs that he bowled.

3. KL Rahul’s poor form

After only managing to score eight runs in Lucknow’s first game of the season, many opined that skipper KL Rahul will be back stronger in the forthcoming matches. However, the same was not the case as the ace Indian batter was once again sent back to the pavilion after scoring a mere 20 runs. Rahul will have to pick up his form if he wants to propel his side to their first IPL title in 2023. 

Losing skipper KL Rahul said:

Not the ideal start after winning the toss. The first couple of overs it was a bit sticky and there was a bit of movement, but we did not bowl in the right areas and they got that flier. When you have quality batters in the opposition, they make you pay. Something for us to learn but the way Rutu and Conway played was brilliant. It does take time to learn what lengths to bowl on a surface, but to go for 70 odd in six overs isn’t ideal. We batted well but we didn’t capitalize the small momentum. Kyle (Mayers) is coming off good form, he was smoking them for West Indies and comes here with the same form and intent. Great to see what he’s done with the opportunity. Bishnoi is someone I’ve played with for a while, he gets wickets when things aren’t going well, puts his hand up and contains runs. Good to see different guys putting their hands up. Wouldn’t change the toss decision, we didn’t win because we didn’t capitalize the small moments. We had a good start but couldn’t press on. Not often we’ll find 4-5 guys caught on the boundary ropes, they needed to go over and will go over the next time. We’ll take that in T20 cricket, today the game didn’t go our way but this is the way we want to keep playing.

Winning skipper MS Dhoni said: 

Terrific high-scoring game. All of us were thinking how the wicket would be. It was the perfect first game that could happen. I thought it would be much slower. But it was a wicket where you could score runs. I was quite surprised with the wicket. But we'll have to see if we can produce a wicket like this game after game. Fast bowling we need to slightly improve. Need to bowl according to the conditions. WHat is important is to keep an eye as to what the opposition bowlers are doing. One more thing if they'll have to bowl no no-balls or extra wides. Or they'll have to play under a new captain. It will be my second warning and then I'll be off. Only reason we've scored those runs is if the surface is nice.

Player of the Match Moeen Ali said:  

They have big hitters. Almost tried to bowl like Test cricket. Tried to spin the ball. The combination was nice (with Santner). The partnership worked well. MS knows what he's doing. He knows when to bowl players. I do believe off-spinners can bowl to right-handers especially bowling to the big leg-side. I'm not going to bowl all the time with Jadeja there.